Ab-Sent
by Okkkay
Summary: Sequel to Con-Sent. This time, the Autobots are in big trouble on Cybertron, but the victorious 'Cons don't get it easy either. Warnings for explicit scenes and a wide range of consent.
**Ab-sent**

The warnings of Con-sent all apply

 **And then...**

Just four Cybertronian orns ago, Wheeljack couldn't have imagined the Decepticons winning the war. The defeat had undoubtedly been his fault. Disregarding Red Alert's warnings, he had given two small cassettes' nanites to all Autobots who had been shot with the repairs-disabling weapons on Earth. As the side effect of this therapy, all the robots charged with guarding the prisoners, Ironhide, the Twins, even Cliffjumper had been giving off the exact energy signatures of Rumble and Frenzy. The director of security had warned that this would equal to a white-out in the observation systems, and he would not be able to detect when the real Rumble and Frenzy showed up.

'When', not 'if'. Red Alert had predicted what was going to happen and they had all ignored him. After assisting Ratchet with the repairs of the Autobots, he went on to put Ravage back together, shard by shard, as he had promised to Soundwave. Someone had mentioned that he should be put on trial for leaving prisoners of war on an uncharted planetoid somewhere behind Primus's back, but then the Victory's captain had been Prowl, and if anyone was to be tried, it would have been him... So the topic had been dropped.

Wheeljack stared at the tools in his hands bitterly. Had he been put on trial, Ravage would have not been repaired so fast. That delay to their cohort-mate would have meant the two treacherous cassettes ran out of time. Or at least they would have acted with Ravage still down.

As it was, Wheeljack still had the scratches the black catformer had left on him as he had unexpectedly turned on the Autobot during the final touches, and ran off. Just a few minutes later chaos had erupted in the holding facility.

VOP.

"Hi! How was your day, Jackie?"

Wheeljack looked up to meet Skywarp's optics. "Relatively good. It's nice to have you here."

As much as he had tried, he couldn't bring himself to hate Skywarp or Thundercracker. They both had known of Soundwave's plan before Soundwave had first offered himself to be harvested, and they had played along. But who wouldn't have had, in their place? They were Decepticons, halfway to being tried for war crimes on their home planet. And they had both treated him nicely, now that the tables had turned. Wheeljack could stay in his own workshop for most of the day, only he had to assist the Decepticons who were turning to him with long-ignored, neglected old wounds. Like all Autobots, he had to report back to the holding cells in the evening, but when he found a damaged Autobot there (and from time to time, he would), he and the other mech were allowed back to his workshop so that he could tend to the fellow prisoner too. With Thundercracker standing guard, of course; but the blue Seeker had been willing to sacrifice recharge time in exchange for Wheeljack remaining cooperative and healing Decepticons during the day.

Objectively looking, Thundercracker had made good business when he chose to maintain his good relations with Wheeljack. As the prisoner had been officially assigned to him, Thundercracker was receiving the benefits from the repaired warriors. It had been just four orns since the Decepticons had rebelled against their captors, three orns since Astrotrain had found the two left-behind Seekers and the communication specialist cohort, and in that very short time Thundercracker had made more money than he had ever possessed in his entire life. His aim was to keep up a win-win situation with the Autobot who had been so good to him on the planetoid.

Not all Autobots were this lucky, but neither had been the Decepticons before. Ironhide had been so rough with Megatron that Optimus or Ratchet had had to interfere two or three times on an average day. Cliffjumper, despite his small size, had single-handedly beaten Shockwave so badly that First Aid and Hoist had worked around the clock for three orns to stabilize him. When the tides had eventually turned, Shockwave's first thing to do was to make sure no Autobot would be abused. "It would be illogical," had usually been all he had said. On one occasion, he had added "We can't afford wasting our resources." And, making Wheeljack shiver in shame, once Shockwave had also said, "We are no Autobots."

As Thundercracker had informed Wheeljack, it was very rare for the two 'Waves to agree about anything. They were third and fourth in command, with Soundwave's cassette Ratbat being the next in the line. When Soundwave had arrived and supported the _'Use yes, abuse_ _no'_ policy, most Decepticons knew better than to mess with them. Starscream had, of course, tried just because he had never been willing to accept anything he was told. He had his long-due vengeance on Skyfire by shock-prodding the larger mech within an inch of his functioning. The white and red Seeker must have forgotten that afterwards, he would have to face not Megatron, but Shockwave. Megatron had been semi-admittedly enjoying the continued use of Starscream the Punchbag. Shockwave had blasted the Seeker's left wing off his back without as much as a flicker of his sole yellow optic.

All in all, both factions had quickly failed at what should have been their versions of peace.

"How about a little energon with me and TC before I drop you in for the night?" Skywarp invited Wheeljack, as the mech finished cleaning his tools.

"I had a really taxing day."

"I take it as a yes!"


End file.
